Commentary on world events that relate to Bible prophecy and on Rapture Ready issues
world events.

Oct 15, 2012

Detroit: Enter at Your Own Risk

The police union for Detroit, Michigan, has proclaimed the city too dangerous to enter. The union recently organized an “Enter At Your Own Risk” rally in front of Comerica Park to remind the public that the officers are overworked, understaffed, and, at times, fearful for their lives.

“Detroit is America’s most violent city, its homicide rate is the highest in the country and yet the Detroit Police Department is grossly understaffed,” said Attorney Donato Iorio. “The DPOA believes that there is a war in Detroit, but there should be a war on crime, not a war on its officers.”

The Motor City has indeed become the arm pit of the Great Lakes:

Justifiable homicide in the city of Detroit rose by 79 percent in 2011.
Self-defense killings in Detroit is 2200 percent above the national average.
Unemployment is up to an estimated 50 percent in the city of Detroit
Seven out of ten murders go unsolved.
There are 95,000 abandoned homes in Detroit and 85,000 abandoned businesses there.

The Police Union claims that Detroit has a manpower crisis right now; there are 1,000 fewer police officers today than ten years ago. To fill these positions would cost about $225 million each year. Having lost over a million people in the past four decades, there is no tax base left to support an army of cops.

The city’s violent reputation has not kept away visitors. According to the International Business Times, metro Detroit receives about 15.9 million visitors annually and tourism accounts for about 9 percent of the area’s 2 million jobs.

The key problem with Detroit and other cities is a collapse in the moral fabric of our nation. The welfare state has turned a huge portion of our population into handout junkies. Nearly 47 million Americans are on food stamps at this point, and overall, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. Just this past week, the number of Americans on food stamps has hit another, brand-new record high.

The city of Detroit is 92 percent black, and this group of people has been the lab rats of the Great Society experiment. Clear evidence that intercity blacks are locked in a cycle of self destruction is simply ignored. Every time we get a new indication that the welfare system doesn't work, the evidence is covered up.

Sometimes it happens literally.

A Google Street View image of Detroit made the news when someone discovered a young man pointing a gun at the Google Car. Google fixed the problem by blurring the imagine of the one holding the gun. Perhaps if Google would blur the 143 square miles of the Detroit metro area, we could declare the problem solved.

Here are links to the actual Google street views that have been sanitized:

The situation in Detroit is bad now, but some day it will become a hundred times worse. When the government runs out of money, all these welfare credit cards and Obama phones are going to become void. What's left of Detroit will erupt into flames as people go into withdrawal. Of course,dozens of American cities will be added to the list of "Enter at Your Own Risk" cities.

We might see unrest even before the economy melts down. Several budget-constrained cities are starting to show tough love for people seeking assistance. The mayor of Costa Mesa, California, has proposed reducing the homeless population of his city by putting all soup kitchens in the city out of business. A number of cities have placed bans on feeding the homeless.

Unrest could erupt from next month's election. Art Cashin of the financial firm UBS describes an alarming vision in his daily note:

"Could we be seeing the end of the American tradition of the orderly transfer of power? Could we be slipping into banana republic mode? The heart of this discussion is the acrimonious tone that has evolved and grown in our political exchanges. All the 'us and them' and class warfare posturing sets a dangerous backdrop to a close election."

There is no doubt in my mind that the breakdown of the debt-based monetary system would force governments around the world to declare martial law. Right now, Europe is our future. The Europeans have been protesting cuts that mostly don't kick in until 2013 or 2014. The sudden loss of 100 percent of people's benefits would have them looking for a financial savior.

Bible prophecy adds its own dimension to this issue. When the Rapture takes place, at least 40 million Christians will instantly disappear. Since believers are part of the financial backbone of America, our sudden removal would have a devastating impact on the economy. Because the negative consequences of being left behind are so high, I ask everyone with any doubt to rethink where you stand with God.

"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36).

--Todd

October Surprise Surfacing?

American presidential politics are more powerful in their impact than at any time in history. The nation’s future has never been more precarious.

While it can be legitimately argued that nothing can be done to change that future, from the perspective of Bible prophecy, we live in the flesh-and-blood reality of the present and have decisions to make. Things are on the fast track to the Tribulation hour, as most who watch for Christ’s return firmly believe. We move and operate within the minutes and hours of everyday life, however, and must address those increments of time as they approach, then become the present.

The term “October surprise” has long been linked to presidential politics. This means that the administration, defending its incumbency, usually saves something under its capability to influence votes until the last moment in order to interject into the campaign process during the October immediately preceding the election month of November. Never has an “October surprise” been more likely than with this presidency. At least, that is my opinion and the opinion of almost every pundit I've heard on the national scene.

This is a close and tightening presidential race. Anything can happen to break the virtual tie. We are at the midpoint of October, which means the surprise–if one is to happen—might have occurred by the time of this commentary’s posting. The anxiety inherent in all this is the fear that such a surprise might cause uncontrollable ramifications. This is because the many dynamics currently interplaying within building crises around the nation and world consist of elements that present X factors–that is, unknown possibilities for triggering catastrophe.

My commentary, here, is merely to present a hypothesis as follow-up to a scenario I have proposed in past articles. The subject is Iran’s ongoing nuclear development program and the longer-term threat it poses to Israel and the world. It involves, too, of course, the more immediate threat of direct confrontation with Israel, the Jewish state that must perhaps take preemptive action to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat. The risk is all-out war with Israel’s Islamist enemies in the Middle East.

One opinion piece this week piqued my interest with regard to these matters. Although it is purely punditry slanted against the president’s reelection, the hypothetical it proposes evokes concerns that it might have some degree of credibility. And, in an odd sort of way, it fits some of my own postulation, thus intrigues me. I’ll try to explain momentarily.

The article said in part:

A former CIA operative and spy in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is reporting that a deal has been struck between Barack Obama and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to Reza Kahlili, “Iran could announce a temporary halt to uranium enrichment before next month’s U.S. election in a move to save Barack Obama’s presidency.” (1)
Kahlili’s source for this story reports that a 3-member team of negotiators representing President Obama met this week with a Khamenei representative in Qatar. They asked that the Iranian leader “…announce a halt to enrichment, even if temporary, before the Nov. 6 election.” In return, Obama promised to suspend some of the sanctions that have effectively crippled the Iranian economy. ("Will Obama Betray the U.S. in October Surprise Deal with Iran?" Western Journalism, www.westernjournalism.com)

My own speculations on the Israel- vs.-Iran nuclear standoff come more into focus for me when considering the suggestions implicit within the above opinion piece.

One who reads this column regularly might recall that I’ve wondered aloud whether the Gog spirit of the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog-Magog prophecy might be presently at work in the mind of Vladimir Putin. Far-fetched? Well, maybe the answer to that is still “yes.” However, the “yes” seems to be morphing more into a “maybe” or “maybe not.”

To refresh; I wondered whether the Russian president might convince the Iranian leadership to pull back from its nuclear program, thus to avert a preemptive attack by Israel.

Follow me in this…

This would: 1) make Putin and the Iranian leadership look like good guys and peacemakers, while 2) making Israel look like bullies without a cause. They could keep their powder dry, so to speak, in order to deal with Israel at a future time when prospects for destroying the Jewish state are more advantageous.

Now, enter the present speculation, beginning with that now-infamous incident in which President Obama was heard to whisper–through an open microphone thought silenced--to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to tell Vladimir (the then president-elect of Russia) to just be patient about America’s willingness to come to the table of nuclear disarmament. That–President Obama said-- will happen once he, Obama, is reelected and no longer has to contend with campaigning for the office.

Now, the scuttlebutt is that a deal has been struck between the leading ayatollah and the Obama administration to announce that they have agreed to halt the enrichment of uranium, based upon negotiations by the very one who was given the Nobel Peace Prize before he had even sat down in the big desk chair in the Oval Office.

Voila! The October surprise!

Such would fit the scenario that Putin’s influence is working behind the scene, while proving that Obama’s words to Medvedev had indeed been relayed to ol’ Vlad.

Ah, well…perhaps just my long vent-up aspirations to become the next Ian Fleming…

There is, however, surely coming an October surprise of some description. We shall see what it is, together. Most I’ve heard from recently through email and in conversation want it to be the greatest of all surprises–the Rapture!